August 16, 2014

St. Stephen of Hungary

Matthew 19: 13-15

Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.

In God’s View

In today’s Gospel we hear those well-known words of Our Lord: “Let the children come to me… for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Here is some of what “to such as these” means to me. Children are dependent on the love of their families and friends. Sure, they give us love and trust, and sweet hugs, and they make us smile and laugh, but they are really almost totally dependent on us.

I think Jesus is challenging us to recognize how dependent we are on God for everything, every breath we take, every beat of our hearts. Mary has this attitude in the Annunciation, when she says:”Let it be done unto me.” As Teilhard de Chardin points out in The Divine Milieu that Mary is actively receptive. She embraces the message, and recognizes that this is an awesome gift: to be the Mother of God.

Author, Kastanzakas, ends his novel, The Diary of a Country Priest with the dying, far from a pastorally effective priest, who says: What does it matter, everything is gift? And Cardinal Avery Dulles endorses Martin Luther’s insight, when he quotes him in a major address: “We are all beggars.”

—Fr. Robert Braunreuther, S.J., a Jesuit of the New England province, assists in University Ministry at Loyola University Chicago, where he is also minister of the Arrupe House Jesuit community.

Prayer

Oh God, I wish from now on to be the first to become conscious of all that the world loves, pursues, and suffers. I want to be the first to seek, to sympathize and to suffer; the first to unfold and sacrifice myself, to become more widely human and more nobly of the earth than any of the world’s servants.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.

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August 16, 2014

St. Stephen of Hungary

Matthew 19: 13-15

Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.

In God’s View

In today’s Gospel we hear those well-known words of Our Lord: “Let the children come to me… for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Here is some of what “to such as these” means to me. Children are dependent on the love of their families and friends. Sure, they give us love and trust, and sweet hugs, and they make us smile and laugh, but they are really almost totally dependent on us.

I think Jesus is challenging us to recognize how dependent we are on God for everything, every breath we take, every beat of our hearts. Mary has this attitude in the Annunciation, when she says:”Let it be done unto me.” As Teilhard de Chardin points out in The Divine Milieu that Mary is actively receptive. She embraces the message, and recognizes that this is an awesome gift: to be the Mother of God.

Author, Kastanzakas, ends his novel, The Diary of a Country Priest with the dying, far from a pastorally effective priest, who says: What does it matter, everything is gift? And Cardinal Avery Dulles endorses Martin Luther’s insight, when he quotes him in a major address: “We are all beggars.”

—Fr. Robert Braunreuther, S.J., a Jesuit of the New England province, assists in University Ministry at Loyola University Chicago, where he is also minister of the Arrupe House Jesuit community.

Prayer

Oh God, I wish from now on to be the first to become conscious of all that the world loves, pursues, and suffers. I want to be the first to seek, to sympathize and to suffer; the first to unfold and sacrifice myself, to become more widely human and more nobly of the earth than any of the world’s servants.